Smarts not needed for life of crime: James Gill

Although bank robberies were way up in the metro area last year, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office says it's not as bad as it looks because Paw-Paw did five of them.

Michael Lewallen

The bank tellers who were scared out of their wits may not derive much consolation from this. A heist is a heist whether it's pulled off by a one-time offender or Willie Sutton.

Michael Lewallen, known as Paw-Paw because he is much longer in the tooth than your average bank robber, is no Willie Sutton. He is relatively small time, and was practically asking to get caught. It is a bit of a cheek for JPSO to suggest the public should be reassured because Paw Paw was allowed to keep coming back for more.

The increase in bank robberies would have been dramatic even without Paw-Paw's spree. There were six in 2010, and 31 last year. Let us not call Paw-Paw a piker, but he did not skew the stats enough to change the overall picture. Bank robberies, meanwhile, dropped significantly nationwide. Whether there are subtle socioeconomic reasons for our being out of step, or the 2011 rate is an aberration, we must leave to the experts.

The question for Paw-Paw is not why do you rob banks, but why do you not bother to leave your own neck of the woods in Metairie before doing so? In June last year he made off with cash from two banks on Veterans. A smart criminal will always change locales to throw the cops off his trail, but, if Paw-Paw was thinking along those lines, the switch he made was not an imaginative one. He just went round the corner to Causeway, and did two more in July.

He would just walk in and hand over a demand note. He brandished no gun, but tellers weren't about to take a chance that he didn't have one about his person.

This was no Napoleon of crime. Three times out of four he turned up just before closing time on a Friday afternoon and might as well have called for an appointment. Security cameras got a decent picture of an uncovered face, which was sufficiently jowly and wrinkled to earn Lewallen, then aged 57, his nickname in the newspaper headlines. Someone would surely have identified him sooner or later.

That proved unnecessary, because in August Paw-Paw returned to Veterans for his last job. He was back on his late-Friday-afternoon schedule, but this time his MO did change. Perhaps he was growing forgetful and had left his pen at home, but the teller was not handed a note. Paw-Paw demanded all the $100 and $50 bills, and no funny business with dye packs.

Presumably on the principle that every little bit helps, Paw-Paw then allowed he would take the tens and twenties too before walking outside and getting into his car in full view of another bank employee while 911 calls were made. There was no eluding the JPSO dragnet this time. Paw-Paw was still on Veterans when he was pulled over.

He denied everything and consented to a search of his car, which revealed $1,590 cash and clothing that matched the description provided by witnesses to the robbery. As if that weren't enough, Paw-Paw admitted that the surveillance pictures looked like him and, when quizzed about his MO, blurted out, "I don't know why I didn't use a note this time."

If Paw Paw could pull five robberies before getting caught, imagine how many a smart young perp could get away with. Perhaps that explains why robberies are up around here. Word is getting around that pickings are easy.

The pros certainly appear to be moving in. Only last Friday two men knocked over an Uptown store. One, described as a stocky six-footer, sported a wig and a black dress over a white halter top. The other was reported in the press as wearing a mask but surveillance photographs show what appears to be a bandana covering only his jaw and mouth.

In a burg where Paw-Paw could evade detection so long, these guys must count as masters of disguise.